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UTAU
UTAU, or Vocal Synthesis Tool UTAU (歌声合成ツール UTAU), is a vocal synthesis software which has currently been distributed for usage on Windows Computers and Apple Computers (UTAU-Synth) About thumb|right|UTAU 0.2.76 in Windows 7 with the Teto Kasane voicebank UTAU is a proprietary vocal synthesizer program unlike VOCALOID and VOCALOID2, which are commercially-sold programs with an accompanying voice bank. Distribution of UTAU began in March of 2008. UTAU, meaning "to sing" in Japanese, has its origin in "Jinriki Vocaloid" (人力ボーカロイド, translated as "Manual Vocaloid"). It was created by re-editing an existing singing voice, extracting tones as WAV files and, reassembling them. For this purpose, a support program was created. In March 2008, Ameya/Ayame (飴屋／菖蒲) released a free, advanced support tool as UTAU. Now UTAU is a shareware, yet the developer distributes it free in effect and accepts donations. The program has at least 50 different usable audio files, composed of Japanese syllables. It comes with the company's "AquesTalk" pre-loaded, which allows any user to load their own voice data to be programed for usage within UTAU. However, without the explicit permission of the voice donor, it is a violation of copyright laws. Those laws protect the rights of any vocalist who may not wish for their voices to be used within the program, such as celebrities. Any music made through this program can be used in the commercial sector. The program can be downloaded here. However, it will not run properly on computers which do not support Japanese text or AppLocale. Some UTAU are commonly put out as "real" vocaloids such as is the April Fool's joke origins of Teto Kasane. Songs using both UTAU and Vocaloid are also not unheard of. Some users have also began to enforce their copyright ruling over their voicebanks; UTAU or fanmade vocaloids who are guilty of plagiarizing a UTAU's name or using a voicebank without permission risk violating UTAU software agreements and voicebank copyright ownerships. Usage in Music UTAU saves the data in .ust format, it is capable of converting .VSQ files into its software file format. Since few software packages can read .VSQ file formatting beside Vocaloid itself, UTAU has been an attractive alterative and partner software to Vocaloid. However, when Vocaloid 3 was released, UTAU did not support the new .VSQX file format, though this data could be converted into .VSQ anyway within Vocaloid 3. .ust does not hold as much data as .VSQ and .VSQX files do. However, overall UTAU is not a professional software and while users may argue on its quality in comparison to Vocaloid, it overall doesn't produce the same quality results as Vocaloid and it can be at times difficult to produce a standard level of quality from the software. It has a plug-in support and users have made a number of plug-ins that greatly improve the softwares handlingt and experience. There are hundreds of vocals for the software, though the vast majority of the vocals are poor quality in comparison to the standard of vocals offered by Vocaloid. However, the type of vocals are much broader and cover a varity of different genres and vocal types. So the level fo difficult and experience of usage can vary per user greaty, depending on what additional modifications and vocals are used. UTAU is, however, well supported as an alternative to Vocaloid and is favoured in both the Vocaloid and UTAU fandoms as an alternative to pirating the Vocaloid software itself. For those unsure of their handling of Vocaloid, UTAU can also act as a introduction to synethised vocals and aid in making the decision to purchase a Vocaloid. Trivia * Those who have tried to exploit a Vocaloid voicebank into UTAU have reported that the results are disappointing, the sound of the UTAU engine and the sound of the Vocaloid engine are very different. An important note is that Vocaloid is not open license and such an act is against the End User Agreement of Vocaloid, although the Macne Series can be exploited this way on the condition the User owns their original voicebank. *UTAU offered the ability to create a voice, with the advantage of legally owning the voicebank and controlling how it was passed around. UTAU led to a decrease in fanmade Vocaloids in Japan because their creators did not have this advantage. *The best-known voice bank for UTAU is Kasane Teto. She is recognized as the first UTAUloid, if not Utane Uta (Defoko), the default voicebank in UTAU. External Links Category:Software Category:Vocaloid Glossary